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Interview with Matisyahu Music and Education
iReport — We had the opportunity to sit down with Jewish Hasidic reggae artist Matisyahu. Matisyahu has just released a new album Live At Stubbs 2. Matisyahu will perform a benefit concert on June 15th at Symphony Space in NYC to help raise money for Lamplighters Yeshivah, a new and progressive school in Crown Heights that he founded. As a parent of two children enrolled in the school, he is personally invested in the vitality and success of Lamplighters and is on a personal mission to improve the overall quality of Jewish education.“Nothing is more important to me than the education of young children during their formative years,” said Matisyahu. “When my boys come home from Lamplighters they are happy, excited and curious about learning.”Founded in September 2010 by Matisyahu and his wife, Tahlia, together with fellow parents of the Crown Heights community and long time educator, Devorah Kessler, Lamplighters Yeshivah uses a holistic, sophisticated and integrated approach to teach children Jewish and secular studies. “At Lamplighters, we provide our children with an integrated worldview,” explained Kessler. “The children are instilled with a deep love and knowledge of Judaism. Torah stories, Jewish holidays and Mitzvos themselves become a springboard for learning math, arts and sciences.”For example, when learning about the fourth day of creation in Genesis, Lamplighter children explored the sun, moons and stars by researching space shuttles and creating their own rocket ships. During the lesson, a five-year-old student dressed up in an orange spacesuit, held the classroom Torah book and said, “One day, I want to take Torah to space.”With a 6:1 student to teacher ratio, classes are small so teachers can get to know and understand each child’s needs and interests. “Each child is a universe and if we want to support their education so they grow up to be engaged Torah Jews, we need to learn about their individual talents and challenges,” said Kessler, who...
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Date Found: May 11, 2011
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